Nadel expresses full support for the people of Palestine

12 October 2023

The National Association of Democratic Lawyers of South Africa (Nadel) expresses its full support to the people of Palestine in their just struggle against occupation and oppression by the apartheid Israel regime.

Palestinian unarmed men, women and children have suffered severe repression and violence and have been evicted from their land. However, the people of Palestine have asserted themselves by attempting to break out of what is termed ‘the largest open air prison in the world’, namely Gaza, by engaging in an armed uprising against their jailers and their families.

The president of Nadel, Mr Mvuzo Notyesi said that the “resistance by the fighters of Hamas in Gaza must be seen in its correct context of a struggle for total freedom, equality and justice against the continued gross violations of the rights of the Palestinian people”.

Nadel therefore recognises the right of the Palestinian people to rise up and resist the occupation and brutality of a racist regime in the same manner as the apartheid regime in South Africa. In this regard, Nadel also recognises the internationally accepted principles of a just struggle for self-determination against a government that is practising genocidal actions and committing gross violations of human rights on a daily basis. The ongoing actions of the Israeli regime over the past years constitute violations of international law, including the imposition of apartheid policies upon the people of Palestine, which policies have been declared as a crime against humanity and the sustained and daily human rights violations of the Palestinian people, and the imposition of mass administrative detention without trial, including women and children suspected of opposition to the Israeli regime.

Mr Notyesi further stated that “Nadel condemns the brutal retaliatory actions of the Israeli army upon the civilian population of Gaza and elsewhere. A single example of such retaliatory action, amongst thousands more, is the total destruction of the building housing the Palestinian Bar Association in the West Bank, which Association serves to protect the diminished rights of Palestinians. Such destruction, which is a calculated pattern, is deliberate and vengeful”.

Nadel calls upon the people of the world to express their solidarity with the Palestinian people during this time of struggle for life and survival, from the attacks of the army, navy and air forces of the Zionist regime.

Nadel also calls upon the South African government to continue its support for the Palestinian struggle and to call upon all international forces and governments to commence a vigorous campaign of imposing sanctions and a weapons embargo against Israel.

Nadel further calls on the South African government to pursue international legal mechanisms through the International Criminal Court to hold Israeli leaders and the military accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Nadel stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine during this critical struggle for its existence.

Issued by Nadel, 12 October 2023